Apparatus for nuclear magnetic resonance therapy are known. For example, German Patent DE 10 2009 060 544 B2 discloses an apparatus by means of which nuclear magnetic resonance can be achieved in a tissue to be treated for therapeutic purposes.
The apparatus disclosed in this patent has the advantage that it is open to the top and the user does not have to lie in a kind of tube that accommodates a toroidal coil.
Nuclear magnetic resonance therapy apparatus typically operate with low field strengths compared to NMR imaging devices. In the region of the tissue to be treated, a field as homogeneous as possible is produced, with a field strength in the mT range. This field is composed of a base amount and an additional field that is swept by a certain amount, for example in a sawtooth-like manner. This field defines the static field in the sense of theory of nuclear magnetic resonances. Perpendicularly thereto, an alternating magnetic field is irradiated, at least during the falling flanks of the swept field, and the frequency of the alternating magnetic field is tuned to the field strength of the swept field in such a way that during sweeping each time the swept field drops, the spins in the tissue to be treated will flip over.
It has been proven scientifically that such a treatment allows to achieve regeneration of tissue damage, in particular of cartilage and bone damage. In the cosmetic field for the treatment of cellulite, this form of therapy can be applied as well.
Particularly great successes were achieved in the field of arthritis treatment. It has been shown that cartilage tissue is able to regenerate due to the treatment so that cartilage damage can be regenerated.
Especially in the treatment of arthritis it is desirable to provide the largest possible treatment volume, since cartilage damage often extends over many regions of the body, especially in elderly patients.
Documents U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,403 A and 5,221,902 A disclose NMR imaging devices comprising components overlapping the patient.